Chapter 191 The Qualified Mastermind After that, Orochimaru did not stay in the Land of Grass for long and left in a hurry early the next morning. A Kage-level warrior and front-line commander like him has countless intelligence personnel watching his every move. Once his whereabouts are exposed and he stays in a dangerous place for too long, he may be ambushed at any time. Orochimaru doesn't have the ability to come and go freely like Flying Thunder God. Therefore, his meeting with Akatsuki was destined to be just a quick encounter. As for what agreement he finally reached with Shiba Kiyokawa that day, it was a secret between the two of them, and no intelligence officer was capable of finding out. The outside world only knew that Orochimaru took new actions soon after leaving the north and returning to his war zone. On the surface, it seems that Orochimaru has ended his long-term slump and started to put pressure on the Sand Village again after many days. But only the few loyal followers of Orochimaru know how contradictory Orochimaru's current actions are. "Lord Orochimaru, are you planning to give up your plan to ambush on Mount Kikyo?"
A Konoha jonin named Tomoe looked up and asked in shock after hearing Orochimaru's recent arrangements. Mount Kikyo is a mountain located in the Land of Fire. Since Orochimaru had chosen the location for the final battle there, he naturally needed to send the Sand Village's large army into the Land of Fire first. So as early as the second half of last year, Orochimaru had already formulated a huge plan to lure the Sand Village step by step, paralyze the opponent's vigilance bit by bit, and finally decide the outcome of the battle! If it weren't for Ye Cang's disturbance in the middle, which made the situation in Sunagakure become confusing for a time, Orochimaru's plan to annihilate Mount Kikyo would have entered the final countdown stage by now. But even so, this grand plan, which lasted for more than a year, had already steadily entered the final stage. No matter how the original work develops in the future, at least before the current time point, Orochimaru is worthy of being the fang of Konoha! He perfectly inherited the ruthlessness and decisiveness of the previous commander of this war zone, Hatake Sakumo. If no one interfered, he should have broken the backbone of the Sand Village with a perfect annihilation battle in the near future and completely kicked this opponent out of the stage of the Ninja World War. But now, ever since Orochimaru came back from the north, he strangely gave up the strategy of showing weakness and luring the enemy deep into his territory that had lasted for months, and instead, as if he had lost his mind, he began to plan an active attack! The jonin Tomoe couldn't understand this sudden change, so he asked this question. But after looking at the map for a while, Orochimaru just spoke lightly. "It's not the right time yet. The scheduled decisive battle will be postponed to next year. Next, we should organize some attacks to prevent the Sand Village from noticing the clues." As for the reason for the postponement of the plan, Orochimaru did not give any explanation. Although Ba had a lot of questions in his mind, he could only lower his head and say "yes" the next moment. He then left instantly and informed the teams below of Orochimaru's decision. With Minato Namikaze's gentle, democratic and warm command style, Orochimaru is the only ruler in the southwest war zone! He never discussed war matters with ninja clan representatives, nor did he need any advisors. Every one of his orders was absolute. Those who disobeyed would simply disappear mysteriously within the next few days, and then reappear sporadically in Orochimaru's secret laboratory soon after. This is why many ninjas were afraid of him and unwilling to support him, but Orochimaru never cared. All he had in his eyes was the pursuit of eternal life and the desire for victory. As for the recognition of others? He didn't even want the position of Hokage, so how could he care about that? In the past, Orochimaru would be more or less concerned about the impact in pursuit of victory, and treat everyone equally in exchange for the support of all ninja clans. But now after returning from the north, people soon discovered that this cold commander seemed to have changed a little.
"Why are all the teams from our Sarutobi clan selected for this combat mission? Tomoe-senpai, are you sure this is Orochimaru's order?" A Sarutobi clan jonin who received the order shouted indignantly. However, the only responses he got were cold questions from Tomoe and a few messenger ninjas. "These are Lord Orochimaru's orders. What, do you want to abandon the mission?" The Sarutobi clan's jonin seemed to be hurt by Ba Lengli's gaze. He unconsciously took a half step back and finally did not dare to raise any more questions. This is not the North, and Orochimaru is not Minato Namikaze, so he won't give face to anyone! If not for this, Orochimaru would not have been put on the blacklist of successors by the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen so early on. But this time, somehow, he suddenly became extremely excessive! Not long after, the battle report came back - Konoha's reckless advance was caught off guard by the Sand Village! The elite troops led by the acting Kazekage Yegura ambushed in advance and killed all the dozen or so Sarutobi clan teams that came out to attack! For a moment, the morale of the Konoha army was shaken and the people were in panic. But soon, within a few days, before discordant voices of doubt could arise, Orochimaru quickly made a beautiful breakthrough in another direction! He personally led the team to raid the weak points of the Sand Village's defense line, fiercely breaking through the Sand Village's defense loopholes, advancing dozens of kilometers in one breath, killing dozens of main Sand Village and more than 300 lower-level ninjas. In a flash, Orochimaru personally washed away the stigma of his improper command, achieved very good results, and stabilized the morale of the Konoha army in this direction. But between these two movements, it seemed that something was quietly brewing. If there were careful intelligence personnel who carefully scouted the battlefield, they would have discovered that the loophole in the defense line that Orochimaru later led his team to break through was almost entirely guarded by the ninjas from the Sand Village who opposed the acting Kazekage! Many of them are loyal subordinates of the former Kazekage Luosha! But at this moment, this kind of thing has just happened for the first time, and most people don’t care. The few who find something strange will just think it is a coincidence. Only those at the center of the storm know: this is not a coincidence at all! Not long after, Orochimaru, who had just returned from the battle, once again received a mysterious letter secretly delivered by the Ninja Cat at night. Looking at the key information on the weak points of the Sand Village defense line and the defending ninjas that were once again marked in code, Orochimaru couldn't help but laugh at himself. "I never thought that after fighting for so many years, we would all become puppets of the same person one day. This is really..." He couldn't find words to describe his mood at the moment. He never imagined that one day the Ninja World War would turn into such a pantomime! He believed that the acting Kazekage Yegura, who was far away at the front line of Sand Village, must have a similar mood as him. Only Shiba Kiyokawa, who was in the Akatsuki organization far away in the north, smiled slightly after receiving the battle intelligence in the south, keeping his achievements and fame to himself. In his previous life, he had heard that if an arms dealer did not sell weapons to both warring forces at the same time, he would not deserve to be called an international arms dealer. And now, he has put similar theories into practice! If he cannot control the two warring ninja villages at the same time, then he does not deserve to be called a qualified mastermind behind the ninja world! Black Zetsu's actions are just for fun, but the real chaos in the ninja world will have to be caused by Shiba Kiyokawa! After the battle at Kannabi Bridge completely made the Akatsuki organization famous and established the mysterious character of Shiba Kiyokawa who could almost predict the future, he has now finally begun to extend his evil claws to the entire ninja world! (End of this chapter)